Just Like Old Times

Hello everybody!

I feel somewhat lucky I am able to write this letter today. This day has been quite a fiasco. To start off we went to our main place where we always go but for whatever reason "myldsmail.net" would just not load. So after 30 minutes of juggling with that we went to another place in Center which worked for about 47 seconds flat, and then out of nowhere the power went out. We planned on waiting there until the power came on but after 10 minutes of waiting the workers said that they don't know when the power will be back on and that they are closing up the store right now because it will probably be a long time. But all hope was not lost, we knew of a different place about 15 minutes away on bus that we could go to. But, that was closed due to Victory Day, a holiday that will be tomorrow. On our way to the place that was closed, we saw a different internet cafe that none of us have been to before. We went in to try it, but it was a super dark and sketchy place. And to add to that, their computers had no internet. As a last hope we came back to the 2nd place we visited and to our great pleasure the power had been turned back on and now were in business!

This has been a nostalgic week, mainly just because me and Elder De Sandre were on splits and he made pizza. He has a gift! We met up with a man named Ivan who I met at a bus stop a week or two ago. We met near a church and started talking to him and an older guy comes up to us and says "Mormons?" and then tells us he knows a lady that goes to our church. After he left we looked around and Ivan was nowhere in sight. We went searching for him, he simple disappeared. No longer having plans, we decided to go to a soccer field to see if anyone was playing. We went up to about four teenage kids and they said we could play with them. My soccer skills are not up to par.  We were having a great time laughing while we tried to play. After the game we got their numbers and planned to meet up again. 

On Thursday to Saturday I was on splits again but this time with Elder Barr. We had a really good time. His investigator, V, took us to a lighthouse! It was super small, I took some pictures and I will send them next week. He is very interested in the gospel and a really nice guy! And on Friday we had to set up a projector for a "Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration" movie night. It was a lot of what happened today trying to write. Running there and back and then to another place. The activity went good! And on Saturday we had a picnic with the branch! It was a little windy you could say. That is actually a huge understatement. The wind was incredible. Also, it was a miracle because when we started the picnic, the weather was rainy and cold but we decided to hope for the best and have it anyway and despite the wind it was really nice weather.

Another miracle: on our way to the picnic an 18 yr old girl comes up to us and asks, "You're Mormons right?" (now that the coats are off we are getting recognized a lot). We affirmatively responded and she told us that she goes to the ДВФУ (the college in Vlad) and is studying Mormons. She told us that there is a lot of negative info about us and wants to do a report showing that we are good normal people. What? This never happens! She was way cool too! 

Well, it has been a fast week. I have been getting a lot of sun and my arms are feeling it. 

Have a fantastic Victory Day! 

Elder Wilding

We Are All Enlisted

Thanks everyone for wishing me happy birthday! 

As I said zone conference fell on the 22nd and I got surprised with a big chocolate cake and the whole zone sang me happy birthday.  I was in the kitchen getting food ready for zone conference and then Sister Perkinson grabs my arm and drags me to the front of the room where we were having zone conference, turns a white board that was next to me around and there was written "Happy Birthday Elder Wilding". Then everyone proceeded to sing but then did an arrangement that I have never heard before where they sing the three birthday songs but it sounds like just one. Needless to say it was a fantastic birthday that I won't forget about for a long time. 

Zone conference went great! As I said I was in charge of the food and the company that we hired to deliver lunch showed up more than a hour late which sucked but we ended up just having a cake and ice cream break, went back to zone conference and started up with that again until the food came and then we took another break. You never know how much goes into these things until you have to do it, and I had a relatively small part and it made me be more grateful for the other zone conferences that I have had. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Gathering of Israel and Mastering Ourselves. We even had a Russian branch member come and teach us pronunciation which as I have said before is the hardest part of the language. I came off wanting to be better and try my hardest.  President Perkinson always is good at getting us motivated.

I met a couple of guys who study at the university on Russian Island. There was three of them and one was from Iraq, the other from Syria and the last from Yemen. I have never met anyone from those countries before. They spoke great English and were super cool and nice. Just another reason why missions are SO COOL! You meet so many people that you never would have met before. I'm having a blast out here still!

On Tuesday we have an activity called Culinary Night were we usually prepare food and explain how we do it in English and it gets a lot of people to come, like 30-40. This week because of construction going on in the church Elder De Sandre showed how to do 1st Aid because he was a medic back at home. It was a riot, he is hilarious! He got ketchup to symbolize blood and used the crowd as his volunteers to show how to act in a variety of solutions. If I came out with anything form his training it is how to remove gloves that have blood/ketchup on them.

Then on Thursday I went and did splits with Elder De Sandre and it was just like the good old days back in Angarsk. At night we were going through the pictures he took in Angarsk when we were together and I really started to miss those times. Back when it was me, him, Lyman and Sumner in the same apartment. Those are some of the funnest times I have ever had in my life.

On Saturday we were able to play basketball at a indoor court. I started out pretty bad missing lay up after lay up but by the end I was draining 3's to my surprise. Then on Sunday we took the sacrament to a old lady who has 7 pets, 5 cats and 2 dogs. Her place actually wasn't all that bad and she was super nice.

The work continues, we don't have any super solid investigators as of the second but we have K that we are working with and once it gets a little warmer we will be hitting the streets playing basketball and doing other things in order to find new people to teach.

-Love

Elder Wilding

From Sister Perkinson:

Dear Brother and Sister Wilding

It is warming up a bit here in Vladivostok and was the perfect day for the East Zone Conference. It was our last Zone Conference in that very room and in the building that we have known to be "our Vladivostok Branch Building". We will soon be in a temporary location until our new building (which is in the final stages of construction) is completed--we are hoping to be attending church there by January 2018!

Our visual was a triangle of *Russian Language pronunciation at the top, *The Plan of Salvation and *The Gathering of Israel at the base of the triangle. Sister Perkinson taught the Plan of Salvation, Andrei -- a Russian English teacher helped with our pronunciation! 

Then we surprised Elder Wilding who was conducting the meeting, with singing "Happy Birthday Trifecta" to him and splurged with cake and ice cream before lunch!

Then Elder Gee did an amazing job teaching us what he had learned about the Gathering of Israel! It was very well done! We had beautiful musical numbers a Medley by Elder Barr on the violin and a quartet by Elder Gee, Elder Barr, Elder Lawrence and Elder Baugh. Well done!

Opportunities were given to share ideas of great conversations with our friends about the Book of Mormon, The First Vision and the need to pray, Study scriptures and attend Sacrament weekly. Elder Gee organized a buzz session down the halls of the building! President concluded with a topic on turning knowledge to intelligence. The spirit spoke to each of us individually and the opportunity to share what we learned benefited all who were present!

We are grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that guides us in our lives and we are grateful for your prayers as we diligently seek for daily guidance to Do The Lord's Work here in our perspective areas in the Vladivostok Mission! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the source of our light!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

Elder Wilding did a great job conducting the Zone Conference meeting. He is also our Vladivostok District Leader! Today we took a picture too!

Birthday Cake for McKay made by Sister Perkinson

With Elder De Sandre

The sign on the building says Eat Drink and Dance (be merry)

I'm a Volunteer

Привет Привет Привет!

It is so good to write home again.  Having a normal workday on Monday was the weirdest feeling ever.  And not writing until today got us all mixed up.  Therefore I am happy to end the confusion.  

My new suit is........... BLUE!  She is beautiful,  I had to get the legs tailored a little shorter because apparently my legs don't agree with my arms.  I was hoping to grow a few inches out here but for as much as i can tell it is not happening.  This transfer has gone faster than any one I have ever experienced.  It feels like I have been with Elder Staiger for 1 day tops.  As of now the prophecy that the last year goes immensely faster is being fulfilled.  We have to move out of the apartment that I have called home for 5+ months.  7 new sisters come in (or 6 I don't know) and they get our apartment and we get to go live with the other elders in their apartment in Slabada.  The changes are to a much smaller apartment and about 20 more minutes away from the church.  But that is a small sacrifice to make to be able to live with 4 elders again.  It is a blast!

Mr. W.  I am so blessed to be able to teach him.  He loves the gospel and reminds me of why I am out here and that I truly do bring glorious news of happiness.  He believes and is happy.  Every time I talk to him he says something in his Chinese accent in broken English very profound and simple about the gospel and I can't help but laugh and smile.  The gospel is joy and he understands that.

We had splits again in Vlad.  I was with Elder Grey and Elder Memmott.  We met with a kid who knows English and can hear any song and then play it on the guitar or piano right after or that is how it seemed.  The next day multiple districts came up to Vlad for a joint district meeting where we talked about the new law and what we could do and what we couldn't do.  We are going to be spending more time in the church now.  Yesterday me and Elder Staiger started to organize the library while we waited to see if anyone would come in.  It was such a mess and we are still not finished.  3 guys came in and we played ping pong with them because for 2 weeks we can't talk about the gospel with anyone besides members.  That is of course unless they sign a paper stating that they are a "follower" interested in learning more about our church.  We set up a soccer game with them on Friday.

I called Vl who me and Elder Lyman taught in Angarsk haha... he is super funny.  He always yells when he gets excited "OOOH OOOH" haha.  He knows some English but usually a word or two and then the rest is all in Russian. In Angarsk I could not understand anything he was saying but when I called him it all was clear.  But that's not saying much because I knew like no Russian when I first got in country it feels like.

We found a big set up poster of Joseph Smith while cleaning out the library.  We put it out in the front where people can see him when they pass by the church.  I'll send a picture of me by it!  

I love you all and am very grateful for all you do!  If you have any questions or more stuff you want me to include in my email just let me know.

Elder Wilding

Change is in the Wind

Дорогая моя семья и друзья

It is good to write to you again!  Many exciting things and changes have taken place this week.  As for the Siberian tiger watch, none have yet been spotted, and we are starting to believe they are not out here.  I was informed last week that America celebrated Shark Week, to all those who were able to watch that consider yourselves lucky.   

A few facts were learned this week as well:

1) My hair should not be cut to 1/2 inch

2) Some German chocolate contains alcohol

3) President Zagorpodnee is an Italian at heart

4) It is possible to sneeze all your energy away

5) Hair takes a lot longer to grow back than I thought

We played some soccer with a bunch of big Russians.  By the velocity of their voice and the look on their faces you would have thought they all hated each other.  That is how they show their love for each other I guess.  After the game we met one of their brothers who lived in Illinois for a year as an exchange student.  He said when he first got there everybody thought he was and because he wasn't always smiling.  Haha completely different cultures.  We got his number and planned to go take a tour of the fire station in town with him.  Turns out it is not allowed so we didn't end up going.  

Me and Elder Hess were on splits on Tuesday.  We made it over to K's.  He has the nicest and was wearing way nice flannel.  He always has some kind of idea of how we can grow the church.  Then he pulled out his accordion and went to work!  He didn't really know how to play but we loved watching him.  

I had a cool experience while teaching a lady who wants to quit smoking and drinking.  Her name is O.  Previous to this experience I was reading about light and how people can see it in your eyes and we talked a little bit about it at zone conference.  I heard tons of stories about other missionaries having people saying that they see light in their eyes.  But that has never happened to me.  And then when we were teaching her she told us she didn't know what it was but we just have something in our eyes.  It was a big testimony builder to me that the church is true and people can see our light.

On Saturday we played soccer and my allergies overtook me and I couldn't stop sneezing the whole time.  It got so bad that my face was covered in sweat and tears.  Sweat from the soccer and tears from the allergies.   I couldn't do anything about it, it was awful.  I think i am going to get rid of my allergies when I get home even if that means I have to get a ton of shots.

As most of you have probably already heard, Russia just passed a new law that makes it illegal to talk about the gospel outside of the church building.  We received instruction from President to get as many new investigators as we can before the 20th when it becomes official law.  But besides that we don't know what we are going to do.  Me and Elder Staiger think we will go around serving people like crazy and play soccer with a ton of people and then somehow try to get them in the church so that we can talk about the gospel.  Basically my whole mission as I knew it is going to change I think.  But I am excited!  It has got to be the better path or else the Lord wouldn't have let this happen.  We'll see how this goes but until then pray for the members over here so that they can stay strong.  Russia in general could really use your prayers.

I am going to buy a new suit today! I don't know what color yet but I'm think gray or blue.   Love you all,

Elder Wilding

Letter from Pres. Perkinson:

Dear Loved Ones,

As we continue to assist the Lord in his Work and Hastening, I request your assistance as follows as it relates to your support of the young and valiant volunteers from your families who are here in Far East Russia.

GOING FORWARD:

In ALL of your correspondence please refer to your sons, daughters, grandchildren, friends, nieces, nephews and cousins as a VOLUNTEER. That designation will be their full time assignment until the end of their service when they return home to you. This also applies to all of your Social Media involvement including private Blogs. Again, remember VOLUNTEER! Volunteer Service, Volunteer Efforts. They will be designated as a Volunteer so please refer to them as a Volunteer, which is different than you have referred to them to this point. Please eliminate Missionary and Proselyting from your methods of communications and posts.

Please, as I have requested before with limited success. Be only positive in your posts in social media and your communication. The Russian People are wonderful, and your sons daughters and loved ones are doing every thing possible to serve and help them in their Volunteer services.

All will be Well! The Lord is in Charge. You should all be proud of your sons and daughters. We love serving with them and love them dearly. Please encourage them to be obedient with exactness.
There is no need for fear, we will bring to pass great miracles through our faith, diligence and hard work!

Sincerely,
John William Perkinson, Vladivostok President

Year Mark Pending: 5 Days

Dear my fantastic family and my good friends,

If I had forgotten that my year mark is almost here, mom definitely reminded me by sending me a lot of hump day camel pictures haha.  It is almost here and it is incredibly weird.  I don't feel like it has been that long, not even close, maybe a few months and that's all.  But I look back and I guess it has been almost a year.  I have had many fun times, happy times, sad times, home-sick times, laughing times and of course spiritual times.  It is true what they told me, when I look back at the first year I only remember the good times.  I'm glad I decided to serve and to be among these wonderful people in Russia.  I'm grateful for all the things I've learned and all the things that have happened which have changed the person I am.  I know it has made me a much better person to serve.  It is amazing how much we receive when we serve.  Almost always it seems to be more than what we give.

The reason I am writing a little later than normal is because we just climbed a mountain with our good pal S!  He is a investigator who told us he knows this forest and he wanted to take us to it.  It was awesome!  We got some good pictures even!  We hiked to the top through this forest!  It was awesome to be in nature! I miss camping so much!  The air was fresh and it wasn't too hot.  We found a tiny river bed and climbed down that and then went to the biggest river in Ussuriysk and sat down and relaxed.  The river reminded me of Alaska when we go and fish in our waders.  The water was low and there was a little rock beach in the middle.

An interesting thing happened on Tuesday.  I met a computer spammer.  He said he spams Instagram and takes everything he uses from America. He was a kind of a weird dude.  Also we had splits and me and Elder Hess were together.  For lunch we decided to have Burger King.  It was good. I haven't had fast food in a while and that was normal, but later that day we met with our taxi driver friend who we befriended not too long ago.  After talking for a little he says, "Let's go to Burger King". We didn't want to but we did anyways. Our cashier worker had tattoos everywhere and maybe the strangest tattoo I have ever seen.  His lower left arm from his wrist to his elbow was just black. The whole thing was black covered in ink.  Anyways to make a long story short, I order two sandwiches and he gave me three and now I never want to eat Burger King again. I felt like throwing up.

I almost forgot, last Monday we made real Borsch with Sister R!  It was delicious and tasty and we loaded it with mayo!  The Russians know how to eat!  We just got some thunder today and it was wonderful!  Thanks again for all you do and for your example and for the support.  I love what I am doing and I love all of you!

Elder Wilding

Shaurma and a Taxi, plus Boris

Dear Dad, Mom bros and everybody else,

It has probably been our most effective week together.  Lessons were lining up and we were having fun having a good time living life in Russia preaching the gospel teaching new investigators, even eating some apple pie. I love being out here!  Russia has been good to us this last week!  And also how could I forget I even got some wood!

So to start off this past week we had a good P-day when I cut Elder Hess's hair.  I think I did a pretty good job!  Then after that we had family night and played Yahtzee card style and the ward enjoyed it and B came who showed up on church the day before and he loved the game and then we had an awesome lesson with B after with Sister P!  

On Tuesday we went to service at K's and cut a ton of wood!  And then headed down to Vlad to be on splits with the APs.  We slept there and had a really good time with them!  The next day I was with my hometown missionary Elder Bodily and we had a great day where I finally got a Bible in Russian, got some more stuff out of storage and had a lesson with a girl named H who is progressing great! I ate two Shaurma's and was in heaven. I traded my tie to Elder Gray for his.  We then went home on a way nice bus for like an hour and a half.  Buses are super fun!  The next day we had district meeting and painted a room in a kindergarten school place!  I got paint all over my hands trying to paint behind this coat rack type thing. Then we met again with B and found out that he works everyday besides Monday through Friday so it will be hard for him to come to church again.  But it was still a good lesson! Our taxi driver was cool on the way over and he gave us his number and we met with him the next day and he brought his girlfriend.  He isn't super interested in the gospel right now but he is really nice.  He took us to a hill over the town and we overlooked Ussuriysk.

On Saturday we had sports night and I got to throw around a football which is something I haven't done for a long time.  It was great!  We played soccer and again I tried to cross it and it went in the goal!

Then on Sunday we went over to S's and he made us a homemade apple pie!  And we met with this guy who came in the church whose name is O.

Love,

Elder Wilding

Doing splits with my hometown boy Elder Bodily

Russia

Dinner

 

Grand Week

Dear всe,

Grand week it has been!  I got burnt pretty bad at our branch picnic but now it is turning into a way nice tan.  I cut so much wood this week!!!!!!  And went on splits with Elder Sieboch. The weather keeps on being nice and we even went to sleep to a rain storm last night with thunder and lightning!  It was wonderful!

Last Monday after finishing up with the weekly email service we went to a Russian Orthodox temple or a храм.  We had to change out of our missionary clothes into our street clothes.  They were having some kind of service when we went in.  Three men singing praises and a few people in there.  The priests kept on coming out and reading the scriptures but singing them!  It was really cool!  They have beautiful voices and the art in there is very interesting.  All the women have to cover their head with a towel or something when they go in but other than that most of the people in there besides the priests were just wearing normal clothes. 

We met with Mr. W our Chinese investigator who is trying to learn English about everyday this week until Friday when he had to go back to renew his visa.  He is starting to believe in God and he loves to study the gospel!  We go through the restoration pamphlet with him in English and he studies it before our lessons and then we go over it with him and after he has us quiz him to see if he understands!  Since we knew he was going to be leaving soon we gave him a Book of Mormon in Chinese.  If is a really really slow process to teach him so we hadn't even got to the Book of Mormon.  When we gave it to him he said, "No I don't want it I need to study the gospel" haha!  And then we explained what it was and he said he would read and pray everyday!  His prayers get better and better every time we meet with him.  His prayers are very simple but so very sincere.  He is amazing!  It is so sad that his visa had to run out and now he is going to be gone for a month.  

On Sunday we had a man named B attend.  He said we called him but I don't remember it.  He wants to become a member of the church he said and he really liked sacrament meeting.  When I was talking to him I learned that he has 3 sisters.  All of them are doctors haha.  And one of them lives in Australia and has forgotten many Russian words he says.  He speaks faster than anyone I have ever talked to but I am excited for the challenge!  We are going to meet with him tonight after family home evening.

Like I already said in the introduction, I chopped so much wood at C's!  I don't know what was up but I was on fire and was one swing splitting almost everything!  It is a day to be remembered!

Yesterday while on our way to a lesson, this little boy about 5 years old came running toward us screaming as if someone was chasing him.  He ran right past us and kept on going until he was out of sight.  Haha no one ever came chasing him, he was just running and screaming.  Earlier in the week we had a picnic near a big blue lake.  We roasted shishkabobs.  They were marinated to perfection!  And we had more than enough!  We had a really good time relaxing near the water skipping rocks and playing soccer.  President Z even took a swim and grabbed the soccer ball when it got kicked in the water.

On Tuesday night Ussirysk might as well had been called America.  We met more people who speak English than I have ever met in my life.  P and his brother A, we just met outside the church and Peter spoke perfect with no accent at all.  I had to keep on questioning if it was Taylor or not because they were twins.  But I guess that isn't anything new.  Coach Funk, Uncle Scott and Taylor that covers about 60% of Russia's population.

Love you all!  Thanks for all the love and strength given to me through you letters and prayers!  

Elder Wilding

Ussuriysk

Hello everyone!  Currently my Panthers are playing their Superbowl in the United States and I am sitting in a internet cafe in Ussuriysk.   The place we went to email in Angarsk was really nice but this place is more like a dungeon.  Meaning the lights are really low and it is just weird.

This week was awesome!  I got back form Korea not too long ago and we were able to attend the temple when we were there!  Wow was that awesome.  We were in such a rush to make it to the temple and to get to the session on time and everything was hectic but once we were in the temple me and Elder Barr were able to sit down for a few minutes in front of the organ and just listen to the music and relax and get in the right mindset.  It was so peaceful there in that holy house.  

So as I kind of said last week I am in an new area.  It isn't Angarsk but I think it is about the same size.  But drastically different.  First of all it actually reaches the positives some times and I heard it snowed like 5 feet just like a week before I got here.  I am currently serving with Elder Butler and Elder Crabb.  Elder Butler is 2 transfer younger than me.  Elder De Sandres age and Elder Crabb is 6 months older than me.  And when the transfer actually takes place I will be serving with Elder Crabb.  And he knows Russian really good and I really like him!

The branch here in Ussuriysk is so strong and a little bigger than Angarsk.  Yesterday we had the most spiritual testimony meeting I have ever had on my whole mission.  We also have this kinda crazy but really funny investigator named V who calls us "who-li-gan-ee" or hooligans.  He is really funny and I like teaching him.

Here we are actually teaching a lot and when we were in Angarsk we didn't as much so it is really cool to be able to do that.

I really love it here and it is snowing quite hard right now.  It is fun to change cities but I am going to miss the other elders and Angarsk.  I hope I will be able to serve there again maybe at the end of my mission.  We have no sisters in my area but we do have another set of elders.  Korea was fun and I met a really funny man who spoke some English and I got a pic with him.

In Korea people would ask questions in English and I would accidentally respond in Russia haha.  The language is coming!

I hope my Panthers win!!

Love

Elder Wilding

TRAVELING TO KOREA

MY ASIAN FRIEND

NESTING DOLL